All of this presumes that said aliens use, fall under, and are subject to the same laws of physics that we do, and, that they share the same galaxy and universe as we do and so share similar situations and existances. We assume that we know all of the elements, how they work, how they exist, and that that there are none other than we're exposed to and fimilar with.
Perhaps aliens have their own periodic table, elements, matter, and anti-matter. Its surprizing how few people care to concieve that. Everyone is so certain that all existance, wherever it is, however it is, has to fall under the power of what we know drives us. It proposes that everything is explainable, understandable, and harnessable, by our science. A logical impossibility. We cannot presume how the unknown can be handled and whether or not it can be, or even whether it can be grasped as a concept. When you consider this, it turns our science upside down and wounds our pride as a race. It throws our science out the window and forces us to see our own limitations and lack of all-powerful knowledge and wisdom.
If people are only thinking so far as aliens living on Mars, or a known planet, then they're not expanding their mind around the concept of a greater universe.
I also think it is dangerous to assume that they're not already here and haven't been since our creation. "When they come we'll know, but until they land in their ships and greet us, not only have they not visited, but they don't exist" is rather arrogant and ignorant. It doesn't account for any stealth, recon, or any other type of situation that aliens could imploy. If humans can infiltrate enemy territory and blend in, why can we not afford aliens the same luxury, hypothetically?
The problem is people don't take it seriously enough. The reason people don't believe in aliens is because the very concept undoes everything humans feel they understand. The idea of something greater than them makes them feel small, insignificant, and trivial. It makes them question why they're here, what life truely is, whether theres a God, or whether theres a way out of this. People don't want to feel that way because they're content and happy with the idea that they feel they've wrapped the universe and existance into a neat little package.
The concept of something beyond us unravels and undoes all of this human arrogance and reveals us for what we ultimately would be in the face of a greater universe- a mere pebble in it's belly.
Man wants to believe he was created to dominate everything and understand everything. When he learns that there is an entire universe beyond this one planet, and that his goal is impossible, he is supposed to be humbled, yet he is not.
Man is ultimately at war with himself, as he cannot overcome his human condition, limit, and frailty, no matter how hard he trys. This leads to his destruction sooner or later. It is inevitable. Our quest to become God is a pandora's box, and I thank the real God that I won't be around to see it.
Heh, its funny. I think we'd probably end up starting a war with an alien race before they did against us. Its always the other way around in science-fiction. Go figure.
